Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Hyphenating a Selection.

Hyphenating a Selection

Hyphenation is the process of adding hyphens to words at the beginning of lines so the hyphenated part will fit at the end of the previous line. The hyphens are inserted between syllables in a word. Word offers two types of hyphenation: automatic and manual. If you choose the first, you can only hyphenate your entire document. If you choose the latter, you can hyphenate your entire document or any portion thereof. To hyphenate just a selection of your document, follow these steps:

If the word being proposed for hyphenation is long enough, you may be able to specify a different place for it to be hyphenated. Simply click on one of the proposed hyphenation points.

Click on Yes to hyphenate the word at the noted point, or click on No to skip hyphenating the word. You are then shown the next possible hyphenation.

Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the remainder of the selection.

When asked if you want to hyphenate the rest of the document, click on No.

Again, there is no automatic way to hyphenate just a selection. There is a way to get around this, however—provided the portion you want to hyphenate is an entire paragraph. All you need to do is select the portions of the document you don't want to hyphenate, and then follow these steps:

Now, when you choose to do an automatic hyphenation, all the paragraphs formatted for no hyphenation are skipped, and only those paragraphs that are not formatted that way are hyphenated. If you use styles, of course, you can make this even easier by setting up some sort of paragraph style that has the hyphenation setting turned on or off according to your needs.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training.
(Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.)
This tip (3500) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Hyphenating a Selection.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Creating Point Pages

Want to add a page, with a different page number, in Word without affecting the entire document? The solution is a bit ...

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Understanding the Hot Zone

Need to hyphenate your document? Then you need to know about the hot zone because it controls how words are hyphenated

Comments

If you would like to add an image to
your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment),
include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload
your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will
be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to
review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Source

(gif, jpeg or png only, 5MB maximum file size)

Source

(gif, jpeg or png only, 5MB maximum file size)

Source

(gif, jpeg or png only, 5MB maximum file size)

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 3 + 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use
the simple form above!)